VICTORA: Freedom of speech seems to depend on the song

Published: Saturday, October 27, 2012 at 02:39 PM.

In our great country, we are guaranteed the right to freedom of speech.

In my small household, our members who are under the age of 18 experience a narrower version of this unalienable right.

That’s because I exert a fair amount of energy restricting my children’s freedom of speech.

They cannot be profane, tell rude jokes, pick on each other or yell from one end of the house to the other when I am tired. Talking to me through the bathroom door is also expressly prohibited.

And while we are trapped together in the family minivan, they can not sing along to the radio unless they all agree to sing along to the radio.

That one may seem odd, but it brings me to the point of this column — that free speech is sweet only to those who share the opinion being expressed.

My children each love to hear themselves sing.

None of them want to listen to the other.

If they’re all singing together, they’re happy and fail to notice the differences between them. Adults are no different.

Go to any social media site and you’ll find folks happily praising each other for beating the same drum and attacking others for beating a different one.

If they’re all singing the same political song, they’re happy. But throw an Obama supporter into a Romney love fest and a verbal brawl breaks out. Freedom of speech no longer seems quite as sweet.

And most of us completely fail to see the hypocrisy of it all. We talk about how the military protects our freedoms as we seek, in our personal time, to restrict those of others.

A good example is the cluster of big ugly signs on the empty lot at the corner of Yancey Drive and Beal Parkway. They call for the resignation of Sheriff Ashley, accuse the president of illegally taking over this country and proclaim that Obama is “bad for USA, bad for the world.”

They’re not the most popular signs, even in this heavily Republican town. Over the years, as the messages have changed, they have even been vandalized.

But those signs are just as much an example of our freedom of speech as your Facebook post making fun of the president.

So, take a deep breath when you hear something that offends you and be grateful that you, too, have the freedom to say what you think.

And if you see my kids out and about, don’t tell them what they’re missing.

In our great country, we are guaranteed the right to freedom of speech.

In my small household, our members who are under the age of 18 experience a narrower version of this unalienable right.

That’s because I exert a fair amount of energy restricting my children’s freedom of speech.

They cannot be profane, tell rude jokes, pick on each other or yell from one end of the house to the other when I am tired. Talking to me through the bathroom door is also expressly prohibited.

And while we are trapped together in the family minivan, they can not sing along to the radio unless they all agree to sing along to the radio.

That one may seem odd, but it brings me to the point of this column — that free speech is sweet only to those who share the opinion being expressed.

My children each love to hear themselves sing.

None of them want to listen to the other.

If they’re all singing together, they’re happy and fail to notice the differences between them. Adults are no different.

Go to any social media site and you’ll find folks happily praising each other for beating the same drum and attacking others for beating a different one.

If they’re all singing the same political song, they’re happy. But throw an Obama supporter into a Romney love fest and a verbal brawl breaks out. Freedom of speech no longer seems quite as sweet.

And most of us completely fail to see the hypocrisy of it all. We talk about how the military protects our freedoms as we seek, in our personal time, to restrict those of others.

A good example is the cluster of big ugly signs on the empty lot at the corner of Yancey Drive and Beal Parkway. They call for the resignation of Sheriff Ashley, accuse the president of illegally taking over this country and proclaim that Obama is “bad for USA, bad for the world.”

They’re not the most popular signs, even in this heavily Republican town. Over the years, as the messages have changed, they have even been vandalized.

But those signs are just as much an example of our freedom of speech as your Facebook post making fun of the president.

So, take a deep breath when you hear something that offends you and be grateful that you, too, have the freedom to say what you think.

And if you see my kids out and about, don’t tell them what they’re missing.